Two Spies Are Better Than One
by KrisEleven
Summary: A collection of one-shots from my submissions to Goldenlake's SMACKDOWN. From their first meeting, to the second anniversary of Dunevon's death, Aly and Taybur's friendship in small scenes.
1. First Glances

A/N These one-shots and drabbles were written as submissions for Goldenlake's SMACKDOWN. It is an ongoing competition where pairings are matched against each other in a (quite epic) battle of which side can produce the most fiction featuring that couple. This group of stories are based off of canon and focus on friendship between the two of them, which I enjoyed writing about. I have posted the other selection of stories I wrote for the Aly/Taybur pairing under the title 'Love and Schemes', which focuses on (angsty) romance.

This first one takes place during Trickster's Queen.

* * *

Taybur was on the dais, scanning the crowd of nobles who had come to the Rittevon court. The spells that circled the thrones made every face in the room closer, and Taybur was able to scan each of the newcomers for signs of malice towards his king.

There was an announcement and Winnamine Balitang and her family swept in. Imajane made a low noise in the base of her throat and Rubinyan set a hand on hers to soothe her.

The daughters were beautiful, Taybur noted, acknowledging the gossip he'd overheard. Especially the oldest, though she had the look of someone who knew it, too.

The younger girl, Dovasary, was a step behind her mother, aunt and sister and turned to whisper something to one of her maids. The raka girl nodded, catching Taybur's attention for a moment before he turned it fully to the other maid walking with the Balitangs. She had her reddish hair cropped close to her head and her white skin sat strangely with the raka dress she moved comfortably in.

Taybur watched as she scanned the room, catching her gaze on each of the exits.

_Wary one_, he thought amused, but then watched as a second sweep of the room caught her focus on each of his guards – in uniform and out.

_Not bad,_ he thought. _This young thing has done better at spotting his defences than Topabaw had ever done. _

Then he leaned forward, enthralled.

The girl looked up, catching his archers posted up above the room in that knowing gaze.

_Oh_, Taybur thought,_ this girl I have just _got_ to meet._

He moved closer to Dunevon's seat, though – just in case.


	2. Challenge

A/N Another alternate POV.

* * *

She made her eyes go round, fear emanating from her innocent-girl posture as she denied each question he directed at her. Going through the lists of countries he knew she _had _to work for, he wasn't able to detect a flinch or blink that gave her away.

Taybur smiled. He hoped this Aly Homewood was as good at the spy game as he suspected. Everything he had seen so far made him think she had been trained, and trained well by someone who had been in the game a long time.

She would have to be, to survive Topabaw and the regents' attention... and Taybur did hope she survived.

He could always enjoy a challenge.


	3. Junai

A/N This takes us past the rebellion, before the concluding chapters of TQ. Junai was Ulasim's daughter and guarded Aly during Trickster's Choice... Aly names one of her sons Junim in her honour.

* * *

Aly managed to keep her emotions in control until they lowered Junai's casket into the ground. She had been holding Nawat's hand tightly for the ceremony, but when she felt her control slipping she gave his hand a light squeeze to get his attention and slipped away from the crowd. Getting around the corner before her tears came, she leaned against the stone archway and cried. Junai had been one of her pack, her guard and her friend and after hours of burying those she had come to love, she couldn't hold onto the control she had been grasping at all day.

She sniffed and tried to wipe her eyes and nose. A handkerchief was thrust under her nose. She looked up and met Taybur Sibigat's gaze.

"It's been a hard day," he said. The words didn't convey the emotion she heard in his voice.

"I just... It was worth it. I know they died for something they believed in, but I don't see how I can honour them for that. They lost everything so we could stand here."

Aly looked around the Grey Palace grounds, wiping her cheek again.

Taybur nodded. "My father had a friend when he was in the army who threw himself in front of an arrow to save my father's life... His name was Taybin." Aly looked at him quizzically. "It's bad luck to name a child after someone else," he explained, "So we honour people by naming them something close to our friend's name."

Aly nodded and smiled. "Thank you, Taybur."

They walked back to the gravesite together.


	4. Trust

A/N The feel of this scene and Aly's character is based heavily off of Megan Whalen Turner's _The King of Attolia_, which is the third in a series I highly recommend.

* * *

"Your Majesty?"

Dove nearly shrieked at the quiet voice in her ear. She sat up in bed, clutching the knife she kept under her pillow and strained to see through the darkness.

"Aly?" she asked, her sleep-muddled brain clearing enough to recognize the voice that had woken her. "What are you _doing_?" she hissed. "I could have _stabbed_ you!"

Aly just snorted.

Dove sighed. "What is so important that you woke me up in the middle of the night?"

"You're talking to the luarin captives tomorrow. You're going to make them swear in blood to you."

"Yes, Aly," Dove said, her voice filled with edgy patience. "It was _your_ idea."

"Don't make Taybur Sibigat swear."

Dove found that she was staring into the darkness, open-mouthed in shock. "What? Why not? He betrayed his monarch, Aly!"

"They killed his monarch, Dove."

Dove frowned. She had seen Taybur care for Dunevon and his grief carrying the boy-king's body home. But...

"They won't agree," she murmured, and Aly knew she was talking about her advisors, all her elders in matters of politics and war.

"They need to see you as Queen sooner, rather than later. It is too easy to get into the habit of treating you as Dove Balitang rather than their sovereign."

Dove blinked in understanding. "So... this is about securing my power and not about Taybur at all?" Aly didn't respond right away.

"I trust him, Dove."

Leaning forward, Dove grabbed her friend's hand. She knew what that meant to Aly, who was more suspicious than she ever let herself appear to be. "I'll get them to agree." She squeezed Aly's hand. "Just don't wake me up again until morning!"

"Technically, it _is_ morning."

Dove groaned.


	5. Smile

_Even a smile would do for now, 'cause I'm all alone again. _Grey Room, Damien Rice.

* * *

Taybur sat alone. He usually did, now, in the chaos of the days following the rebellion's defeat of the Rittevon line. He wasn't sure if it was active dislike on the part of many of them. More likely, his solitude reflected the uncertainty of a country still rumbling from its civil war had infected all of them in the Grey Palace; no one was certain what he represented or what would be done with the Captain of the King's guard who had stood aside to let the raka army pass. He was not one of Dove's people, not really; his alliance to the Rittevon crown was too fresh and too newly swapped for them to accept him. But the luarin nobles would not forgive him, and they looked at him with more outright hatred than they directed towards the people who had fought for Dovasary.

And why not? They, at least, had chosen a side and stuck to it. He had sworn to be loyal to one, and switched that loyalty to another, and he didn't think they would forgive him that.

"You are looking much too glum for such a beautiful day."

He had noted her arrival only seconds before she spoke, that was how silently she moved. He turned and looked up from his seat on the bench to smile at the grinning face of Aly Homewood.

"It is August; the warm weather will not last long."

"Yes, but winter is not here _yet_," she replied with her usual bright cheerfulness. "We can still appreciate the day while it lasts."

He shook his head. "I don't think even winter could dampen your spirits."

"Probably not," she agreed, flopping down onto the bench with a surprising lack of grace, considering how fluid she could be. He eyed her, wondering what role she was playing and to what purpose. "Another meeting with the luarin nobles may, though. We're meeting with those we captured."

"Ah," he said, enlightened. "And are they staring down their noses, pretending their cells are private palaces?"

Aly laughed. "Exactly the description I would use." She shrugged. "For some of them, anyway," she amended. "A surprising amount have agreed to Dove's terms and accepted the blood oath."

Taybur turned away from that topic. "What else are they discussing?"

"You." Taybur turned to study her profile; she waved at a maid passing by and continued without looking at him. "Oh, not with the luarin nobles; I've gotten confused." Taybur snorted at the outright lie, but the dread didn't leave his gut. "Her advisors want Dove to bind you with a blood oath. She refused. She said that she will trust you."

Taybur stared at her. "Why?" he asked, the question ripped from him in honest surprise.

She turned those hazel eyes on him, then. "Because you lost as much as anyone," Aly said, gently.

He shook his head, surprising himself with his stubbornness. "That's no reason to trust someone. She doesn't even know me."

Aly smiled. "No, but I do, and I trust you, Taybur Sibigat. So don't prove me wrong. I don't think my reputation could stand the stain."

He laughed outright at that as she jumped up from the bench and walked back towards the palace doors.

"Don't stay out here all day, Captain!" she called over her shoulder.

_No, _Taybur thought. _There is much to do._ But he took a moment to enjoy the warm weather before he followed Aly inside.


	6. Hormones

A/N This scene is so incredibly sexist I can't even stand myself. Poor Aly.

* * *

Taybur was returning to his office when he happened to glance down a small corridor. Stopping short, he hesitated before he turned around, slowly. He thought he must have imagined it, but when he retraced his steps to the corridor, he saw Aly sitting on a wooden bench a few feet away, her face in her hands as her shoulders shook with sobs.

"Aly?" he asked, walking towards her.

"Oh, go away!"

"Aly, what happened? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine! I just hate being pregnant! I hate Nawat!"

Taybur was rapidly coming to the realization that this wasn't a conversation he wanted to be having with the spymaster and began looking around rather desperately for a female to take over for him.

"Just because I have to be the one to carry the babies or eggs or whatever they end up being doesn't mean I am any less capable of doing my job! _He _gets to go out and do his job! And he and Dove decide that I am not to go out in the field until this is over with. Dove _has_ to visit the outer isles and I am supposed to just sit here?" Aly pounded her fists against her thighs, her tears increasing.

"I am exactly the same person I am when I am not pregnant!" she wailed. She turned to glare at him when a small snort escaped his control. "_What_?"

"Aly," he said, as kindly as he could while fighting his smile. "You're sitting in the corridor crying."

Taybur realized his mistake immediately. She slouched down over her expanded belly and sobbed.

"Oh, Aly." Taybur looked up relieved at the familiar voice. Nawat had come around the corner and knelt in front of his wife. Taybur took the chance to make a break for it as Nawat brushed his wife's hair out of her face and spoke soothing words.

Taybur stopped only when he reached his office. Leaning against the wall, he brushed a hand across his forehead. He took a deep breath and thought that he had never been happier to be single.


	7. Lying

Aly was an expert at lying to people.

Oh, she knew it was more than that, but that was what it boiled down to in the end. She could make her face and body and words mean whatever she wanted them to mean. And the other person believed her, because there was nothing there _not_ to believe, except that the truth behind her words was one of her own creation.

So when Taybur burst into her office, furious that one of her people had been in his office, she made her eyes go innocent-round and her voice take on just the right tone of indignation and told him that she had no idea what he was talking about.

And because she was such a good liar, he didn't see through her words.

After he stomped back out into the hallway to track down the next person on his list of suspected trespassers, Aly sank into her desk's chair with a smile. He should know by now that if he really wanted to keep her out, he would have to get trickier than a few magic charms and a piece of glass inside the door. She looked forward to the next time she had to go through his private papers; he should have thought up something really devious by then.

Turning back to her desk, she opened the letter she had stolen from Taybur's secret drawer and smiled thinly when she read his steward's account lines. She had seen that the man was lying to the Captain, but wanted proof before she did something about it.

Taybur would never suspect that Aly had dealt with the man who had been cheating her friend for years; out in the open just wasn't her style. The man would simply resign from his position, claiming that his eyes were too poor to continue with all the paperwork... look at all the money he had miscalculated from Taybur's last payment! All returned with his resignation letter, of course.

_After all_, she thought, as she slipped the re-sealed letter back into his desk's drawer the next night, _What were friends for?_


	8. Dying Days

_Memories of dying days that deafen us like hurricanes._ Savior, Rise Against.

Taybur found he could forget it, most days, except for his sudden fear of storms.

He had never had the fear as a child. Indeed, it was his bed his sisters would crawl into during storms in the nights, even though two of them were older than he was. Lightning was hard to be frightened of even as a child when there were four of you huddled under the blankets, making games that passed time between each flash and rumble, judging just how far the house _would_ blow if it did get tossed away, and making outrageous stories about what the gods were doing to make the world react so violently.

He was surprised, then, by his reaction to the first storm after the rebellion was over: to find himself sitting in bed in cold sweats, shaking as he tried to calm his breathing.

It didn't pass or fade with time. Even months later, he sat in his office wincing each time thunder cracked overhead, and he was drawn ever back to that storm.

He thought the worst had been over with when he avenged Dunevon's death. The people responsible were dead, all of them, and he tried to take pleasure in that fact. But, instead, it just reminded him that Dunevon was dead, too.

Lightning flashed outside his window and he tensed, waiting for the crash to follow.

Because no matter how many people died, it didn't bring him back. It didn't change the fact that he had spent hours holding on to his body as the storm raged around him, knowing that _holding on_ wasn't good enough, not when what was precious in the little boy was already gone.

There was a knock on the door that corresponded with the thunder crash, and Taybur thought he had imagined it.

She didn't wait for him to answer the door, and didn't need to. He always locked himself in during these storms, but that never stopped the spymaster of the Kyprish Isles. He looked away as she closed the door behind her, cursing the stupidity of the situation. A grown man, reduced to huddling in the dark because of lights in the sky and-

He jumped violently as thunder crashed.

He had almost forgotten she was there until she settled onto the desk, sitting behind him so she could rest her hands on his shoulders.

He didn't know when she had noticed his fear of storms, but he was never alone long before she would arrive at his side and sit with him through the night. He wasn't sure if he wanted her there or not; his embarrassment struggled against the same desperate need for comfort that had driven his sisters to run to his room when the storms began.

The steady pressure of her hands didn't change as he jumped with the noise of the storm passing overhead. Soon, he could focus on that touch rather than the sounds of the wind and rain. The pressing hands on his shoulders and back had no connection to the storm that had killed his king, and it took him away from the memories until he stopped shaking, and his breathing relaxed, and his muscles loosened.

Aly would stay with him until the storm ended, just as she always did.


	9. Something to Save

A/N This is a direct continuation of the scene in the previous chapter. Point of interest: I have no idea who Aly is referring to. She might be making the story up. I think it has something to do with Raoul, though.

* * *

_I don't hate you, boy, I just want to save you while there's still something left to save. _Savior, Rise Against.

Aly always managed to find her way to his side when a storm began. He didn't know how she had discovered his increasingly panicked reactions when the weather grew rough, but he never asked. Sitting behind him on the desk, Aly's hands made comforting circles on his shoulders and back as she distracted him from the bursts of light and crashes of thunder outside his office window.

Time passed and they were left with just the sounds of the rain pattering on the windows. He only noticed when her hands left his shoulders. Looking down, he avoided her eyes, even as she moved around his chair to kneel in front of him, her hazel eyes locked on his.

"Taybur," she said, but he didn't look at her. She sighed and they sat together in silence.

"There was a battle, once, that a knight I knew in Tortall was part of," she said, finally. "I heard that they were caught on this bluff for nearly two days, and the bandits were using this particular bird call to signal attacks. Every time they heard that bird call, the soldiers knew that the enemy would be making a pass on the bluff, and that they would have to fight for their lives. They lost nearly half of their Company on that bluff, waiting for reinforcements to come and pull them out.

"Almost a year later, this knight was in the northern forests and heard this bird call. Tortall wasn't at war, they weren't even in bandit country; they were on a peaceful escort from Corus to one of the northern fiefs. They had no reason to expect any danger at all. But this bird was native to those forests, and the knight told me that three days of listening to this bird call as they rode towards the fief had him so nervous, he had to be sent back to Corus. He couldn't eat, couldn't sleep at night. He snapped at the people he was travelling with, became paranoid of the smallest things. He didn't want to tell anyone what was wrong, because he thought it was silly, because it wasn't real.

"When he was sent back to the capital, you know what the healers said? That our minds push these horrible things down so that we don't have to think about them, but that they can't do it forever. Then things trigger these memories and the body can't deal with them. But that knight? He told me, once, that he thought it might have just eaten him up from the inside if he had just ignored it. That he was losing himself slowly, even before his reaction was enough to force him to the healers. He thought he should deal with it on his own, and it nearly killed him.

"He is one of the bravest people I have ever known. More so because he got the help he needed, when he knew he couldn't do it alone."

Taybur sat silently. She put her hands on his knees to push herself up off the floor and, with a brief touch on his shoulder, was gone.

The rain slowed to a light tapping and then down to dripping on his windowsill from the roof above.


	10. Working Relationship

"If we are to have a working relationship, I think I need some questions answered."

Aly only response to this latest tactic was a grin as she continued to sort the papers on her desk into neat piles. Taybur lounged in her doorway, watching her work. He didn't mind that she didn't tell him about her past, although he wouldn't let go of the mystery anytime soon. His favourite part of puzzles had always been putting them together; he didn't hoard knowledge like Topabaw had done, he just loved the act of collecting it.

"All right," Aly said agreeably, disrupting his thoughts. She had twisted in her chair so that her elbows were resting on the back. "You can ask me one question."

"And you'll answer it?"

"Oh, that's nice! Yes, of course I'll answer it."

Taybur grinned then, stroking his chin as he thought about the question he most wanted answered. If he asked her name, it might not tell him anything in particular, if he asked which country she was from he would have to specify born in and worked in, most likely...

"Ah, okay. Who did you work for, before you came to the Copper Isles?"|

Aly smiled. "You asked me that question the first time we met." Taybur nodded. "You guessed right that day."

She turned back to her desk, leaving him to think about her answer.

"Wait! I guessed _every_ country that day!"

"You should be more discriminate, then."

"Sneak."

Aly laughed as she turned around and took in his pout. "I _am_ a spy."

"I can't work in these conditions."

"You'll survive."


	11. Lost

She burst into his room in such a frenzy that Taybur had his sword half unsheathed before he realized that she was alone and unarmed. Only after his initial adrenaline faded, somewhat, did he notice that she was crying.

"I've lost him!" she said, staring at him wide-eyed, her hands on either side of her face.

"Who?"

"The others are with Nawat and I thought it would be okay to let Ulasu play in the corridor as I finished some reports and then I went out to get him and he was _gone_."

"Did you look in the other offices..." Taybur asked as he threw on a jacket and led Aly out into the corridor.

"Yes! And I used my Sight and I asked the darkings and nothing. Oh, gods, I've lost my baby."

"Hey. It's okay. We'll find him. I'm going to go get Quedanga to send servants up to this wing and you get your pack and we'll find him." He steadied her, holding onto her shoulders until she was calm. Then she was running up the corridor as he walked quickly towards the servant's wing for reinforcements.

It was Eyun who finally found the toddler, curled up under a pile of blankets in a small storage room. He had crawled under the desks stacked at the front of the room to play in the extra sheets, and became soothed by the heat of the room and the comfort of his little nest.

Aly clutched him to her chest and kissed his forehead while he blinked sleepily around at the group of adults surrounding him.

With pats on the head for the boy and comfort for Aly, the servants and spies filtered away into the palace.

"Thank you, Taybur," Aly said when it was just them left in the corridor. Standing on tip-toe, she kissed his cheek gently over the head of her son. "I knew I could count on you."

Taybur watched as she walked back towards the nursery with her son in her arms.

* * *

A/N Thank you for reading! I hope you stop by Goldenlake (link on my profile) to check out the other posted stories, and to chat. The people there are wonderful and SMACKDOWN runs through April and May! As always, let me know what you think because I love to hear from everyone reading. Thanks for making it to the end!


	12. The Important Things

A/N A continuation of 'Working Relationship'.

* * *

"Are you ever going to tell me who you are?"

Aly smiled without turning to see the speaker. She could imagine him slouching against one of the trees that grew near the bench where she sat.

"Your distrust just kills me, really it does," Aly said, cheerfully. "After all this time of trust and honesty and friendship..."

Taybur Sibigat laughed as he pushed himself off the tree's trunk and walked towards her. He dropped onto the bench beside her, looking out over the small portion of the palace grounds she was observing.

"'Honesty'?"

"I can be honest!" she said, feigning outrage at the scepticism in his voice. He just laughed again, that boyish laugh she had missed so much in the months since Dunevon had died.

"When it suits you."

"When it suits me," she agreed.

They sat together in comfortable silence. Soon, she knew, her children would wake from their midday nap – they were blissfully regular in their schedules – and she would go inside to sooth them. She turned to Taybur to ask if he would join her, knowing how much he and the babies enjoyed the time he spent in the triplet's nursery and paused. She trusted him with everything that was most important to her already.

"Alianne of Pirate's Swoop," she said. He stared at her blankly a moment before he reacted, inciting a laugh from Aly at the surprise on his face.

"Of Pirate's... no." He stared at her as she nodded. "Well... I wasn't expecting that."

"You seem to be the only one. Everyone else's reaction to the news was disappointingly undramatic."

"And that would never suit you."

"Oh, I suppose it was for the best. 'Dramatic' probably would have led to me being stabbed or other such unwanted activities. I _was_ disappointed for a while."

"Trickster," he named her, shaking his head. She shrugged one of the crow's half-shrugs she enjoyed so much; neither accepting or denying his charge.

Jumping up off the bench, she held out her hand to pull him up.

"Will you come help me with the babes?" she asked, smiling at the delight on his face.

They walked towards the nearest door arm in arm. As they reached the door, Taybur pulled it open, hesitated, and then with a devlish grin bowed her through.

"After you, my Lady."

Aly punched his arm. "Don't make me regret this."


	13. Rebel's Monologue

They hadn't been expecting the rebel soldiers, but that didn't mean the team escorting Dove to the distant manor wasn't ready for them. Aly allowed herself only a moment to curse before she had her knives out and one of the enemy was on the ground, clutching his gut.

Luckily, Dove was still in the air, the golden kudarung she had rode in on circling the battle below.

Aly looked up to make sure she was still there, out of range of any archers the rebels may have with them, and then gasped as her scalp burned. Someone had grabbed hold of her shoulder-length hair and pulled her off balance. Before she could get her footing, strong limbs had pinned her arms against her side, constricting her breathing as well as her movement. She felt a blade on her throat, but couldn't twist away.

"Tell your _raka_ queen – " the rebel's growl cut off in a gurgle. His grip on Aly dropped away and she spun around, her knife ready, in time to see Taybur pull his sword from the man's chest.

"All right, Aly?" he shouted over at her as he engaged another rebel.

"Thanks!" Aly grinned as she jumped back into the fight. "I _hate_ when they start with the monologues."

Taybur's laughed rolled across the field.


	14. Anniversary

Aly knew where to find him, and she knew exactly what to bring. The year before, Taybur had lost himself in a bottle in a tower whose windows overlooked the harbour. When she and the darkings had finally tracked him down, he had been violently sick and nearly incoherent.

The next morning, he had shaken his head ruefully – stopping quickly because of his hangover headache – and promised that it was the last time he would use alcohol on the anniversary of the storm.

But Aly knew the day would not get any easier, even though another year had passed.

"Secret," she called as she collected her distractions. "Find Taybur for me?"

It took the darking network only a minute to track the Captain down to the same tower, though they promised he was just sitting and looking out the window, not repeating his drunken adventure from the year before.

Climbing the stairs with her heavy burdens on her hips, Aly grumbled about Taybur's chosen spot until she pushed open the door with one foot and the man himself turned around to look at her.

Releasing the distractions, Aly watched with a smile as Junim and Ulasu ran towards him, screeching. Taybur caught the boys and lifted them into the air, laughing. He shot a weak glare at Aly that she widened her eyes and shook her head at, as if her lugging her toddlers up the tower stairs had been an accident.

"Mama! Mama look!" Ulasu shouted as Taybur threw him over his shoulder and bounced him towards the doorway where she stood.

"I'm onto you, spymaster."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she replied. "Want to go down into the garden, boys?"

Taybur sighed, but a smile was twitching his lips as they shouted excitedly. "Let's go, then." Aly started down the stairs. His rueful words carried after her, "I suppose I'll be carrying you, then."

* * *

A/N Thank you for reading!


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